122 posts tagged with newjersey.
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Vineyard Wind is live
Electricity from the country’s first large-scale offshore wind project is officially flowing into Massachusetts and helping to power the New England grid. The Vineyard Wind project achieved “first power” late Tuesday when one operating turbine near Martha’s Vineyard delivered approximately five megawatts of electricity to the grid. The company said it expects to have five turbines operating at full capacity in early 2024. [more inside]
None of this was a good look for America’s Greatest Family Resort
Standing in the shade of the old Copper Kettle, the full force of what I experienced as a child suddenly returned. Something had never felt quite right about Ocean City: I could never really be a part of it, however much I wanted to. There was nowhere for someone like me, with my queer desires, to go in America’s Greatest Family Resort, except under or out. from Who Killed the Fudge King? [Atavist; ungated]
Claw & Order, Jersey Shore edition
In New Jersey, cheating at boardwalk games is considered especially heinous. On the Jersey Shore, the dedicated detectives who investigate this malicious mischief are members of an elite squad known as the Legalized Games of Chance Control Commission. These are their stories. (archive.today link) [more inside]
New York Jewish Conversational Style
New York Jewish Conversational Style (17-page pdf, 1981)
“there are ghosts in our machines and that our house pets have claws”
The Witching Cats of New Jersey is a short essay by artist and historian Kazys Varnelis about the fashion among the 19th century New Jersey merchant class of commissioning portraits of their cats in the guise of witches’ familiars, most of whom are now kept at the Germantown College Archives. This then becomes an essay about AI generated art, for obvious reasons.
The Empty Chair
"In such vast ocean of matter and tumult strange"
Christine Riding, "Shipwreck, Self-preservation and the Sublime": Being "a subject that encourages the spectator to imagine 'pain and danger' and 'self-preservation,' 'without being actually in such circumstances' may well be why shipwreck ... was suited to the sublime." Hans Blumenberg, Shipwreck with Spectator [PDF; chapter summaries: 1 + 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]: "Humans live their lives and build their institutions on dry land. Nevertheless, they seek to grasp the movement of their existence above all through a metaphorics of the perilous sea voyage." Supplementing many previouslies, a number of shipwreck narratives offer further occasions for reflection. [more inside]
"...no state is more mocked, maligned and misunderstood."
The greatest thing about every single town in New Jersey, a five-part series by NJ.com food and features writer Pete Genovese. Links to each individual installment below the fold. [more inside]
Eats A Pizza — Jersey Boardwalk – The Sawmill
Peeta Peppa and Tony Roni, hosts of the Eats-A-Pizza Show, visit The Sawmill in Seaside Heights, New Jersey to review their famous monster slice. [SLYT]
New Jersey needs volunteers who know COBOL
Jersey wuz here
Hi Haters: “Who let New Jersey have a Twitter,” a guy named Gary wondered, on Twitter, not long ago. “your mom,” the State of New Jersey responded. With moments like getting baited by the feds over Sentient Pork Roll, the realness of Central Jersey, dunking on Delaware, and declaring itself the Pizza Capital of the World, @NJgov is redefining what it means to be an official state Twitter account.
He told a kid to slide. Then he got sued.
"An offense to the eyes as you drive up the turnpike"
The American Dream Mall is opening tomorrow in the former swamp near the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Originally called Xanadu, the building Governor Chris Christie once called "the ugliest damn building in New Jersey, and possibly America" is set to open with a Nickelodeon theme park, an indoor ski slope [photos], and the largest indoor water park in the western Hemisphere. But will anyone come?
uspolitics from an external perspective
“The Divided Soul of America” (42½min video, .mp4, magnet)
Racism, intolerance and xenophobia have always existed in the USA. But under Donald Trump, America has become a bitterly divided country and the scene of a fierce cultural struggle for the nation's future.—Deutsche Welle English's DocFilm profiles the state of politics and society in the US. [more inside]
A wealth of Cretaceous fossils from Burmese amber in Myanmar
The 3D reconstruction of a 99-million-year-old millipede discovered in Burmese amber allowed for the description of an entirely new suborder (Eurekalert), and is just one of the many exciting discoveries in Burmese amber. Burmese amber, mostly coming from the Hukawng Valley (Wikipedia) in Kachin State, northern Myanmar (formerly Burma), is valuable not only for understanding of the Myriapoda fossil record and historical biogeography (ZooKeys, open paper), but also including fantastic fossils of frogs (Nature Science Reports, open paper), bone and feathers from theropod wings (Nature Communications, open paper), a whole bird trapped in amber (National Geographic), and the previously discussed feathered tip of a dinosaur tail. [more inside]
there will be action in the aisles....
Earlier this spring, North Bergen High School in North Bergen, New Jersey, USA put on a stage play adaptation of the movie Alien. [more inside]
"a chill of arctic iciness down the spines of the many people"
The Anarchists Who Took the Commuter Train, Amanda Kolson Hurley writes about the Stelton colony, founded 1914, near New Brunswick, New Jersey. An anarchist intentional community, the Stelton colony centered around the Ferrer Center and Modern School. [more inside]
Not to be confused with Dipsy's Hat, which contains untold powers.
Ong's Hat: The Early Internet Conspiracy Game That Got Too Real "On a sunny morning in early 2000, Joseph Matheny woke up to find conspiracy theorists camped out on his lawn again. He was making coffee when he noticed a face peering in a ground-floor window of the small, three-story building he rented in Santa Cruz. Past the peeper, there were three other men in their early 20s loitering awkwardly. Matheny sighed and stepped outside. He already knew what they wanted. They wanted to know the truth about Ong’s Hat. They wanted the secret to interdimensional travel." (Ong's Hat previously.)
“It was just like: Man, we could drag race down that beach.”
The Race of Gentlemen (TROG) is a vintage hot rod and motorcycle festival. To qualify, cars must have been produced before 1935 and motorcycles before 1947. This year nearly 20,000 spectators watched almost 200 cars and bikes racing down the sandy beach. [more inside]
The "Citizen Virtual Patrol" is here
Newark, New Jersey has surveillance cameras everywhere, but unlike most, these are open for public viewing.
The Shield
In January, the Asbury Park Press (APP) published "The Shield" -- a 19-part investigation of police corruption and lack of accountability in New Jersey. The exposé took two years to complete and revealed that municipalities across the state had collectively spent about $43 million in taxpayer money to cover up the brutal actions of rogue cops who had killed, beaten and stalked more than 200 citizens. In many cases, the cops were not only protected from punishment, but even kept their jobs and received promotions. [more inside]
In Search of New Jersey's Wild Bears
"[M]y ambition to see a bear in my back yard has not been completely insane. By the latest estimate, there are about twenty-five hundred bears in New Jersey now. Wild bears. Black bears. And perhaps not a few that have immigrated from Pennsylvania in search of a better life. In recent years, bears have been spotted in every New Jersey county." John McPhee in The New Yorker
The essence of joy and heartbreak
"He channeled the essence of joy and heartbreak into hook-laden three minute pop songs infused with a lifelong passion for rock & roll." Pat DiNizio, lead singer and songwriter of the Smithereens, has passed away at the age of 62. [more inside]
Bastards stole their power / from the victims of the Us v Them years
One year after perhaps the most disastrous electoral result in the history of the United States, tomorrow America returns to the polls for Election Day.
With a mixed record this year of surprising victories in state-level legislative special elections, but several disappointments in Congressional ones, the Democratic party is hoping to turn the historic low approval ratings of the president into electoral victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere across the nation. [more inside]
With a mixed record this year of surprising victories in state-level legislative special elections, but several disappointments in Congressional ones, the Democratic party is hoping to turn the historic low approval ratings of the president into electoral victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere across the nation. [more inside]
Appalachian Dialect & New Jersey Hillbillies
Southern mountain language isn't frozen in time. The "hillbilly" dialect has changed over time, just as American language has elsewhere in the country, but the stigma remains. Here's what they're trying to do to help erase that attitude.
And over in western New Jersey is a different kind of hillbilly and the stigma they labor under. The article was referenced in a reply to the first link, but I went and read all about the Strangers on the Mountain, of whom I'd never heard.
"A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard" - MLK
Beginning today, the ACLU of New Jersey is tweeting a realtime re-enactment of the Newark Rebellion of July 12-17, 1967. @Newark1967 will chronicle six days of violence and terror that followed the beating of a black cab driver by two policemen, piled upon years of disenfranchisement, white flight and divestment. Initially, civil rights leaders called for peaceful protest, but community anger had reached a boiling point. In the violence, destruction, and chaos that ensued, the police occupied the city, the National Guard was called in, and in the end 24 civilians (including several women and children as young as 10), along with a firefighter and a police officer, were killed; more than 500 were injured, and more than a thousand arrested. It was just one in the United States' long history of uprisings related to racism. [more inside]
FIXIN'S
New Jersey’s One Million Acres of Undeveloped, Otherworldly Land
#unitygames NJ 5th Graders Provide Hope that the Kids Will Be Alright
Fifth-grade Catholic youth team forfeits season rather than kick girls off For several years, a Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball team in New Jersey had included a pair of girls. But recently the squad, now in the fifth grade, was presented with a difficult choice: Drop the girls, per the archdiocese’s rules, or forfeit the season.
The team’s decision was unanimous. It was also courageous and inspiring. [more inside]
Scout Law says: a Scout must be kind. Mostly. Sometimes. Or not.
NJ Boy Scouts kick out 8-year old Joe Maldonado who is transgender. “It made me mad,” Joe, said. “I had a sad face, but I wasn’t crying. I’m way more angry than sad. My identity is a boy. If I was them, I would let every person in the world go in. It’s right to do.” [more inside]
“But a dead tree cannot be saved, and dead it is...”
A 600-Year-Old Oak Tree Finally Succumbs [The New York Times] “The locals say that George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette — the Frenchman who bankrolled the American patriots with cold, hard cash — picnicked in the shade it provided. Rank-and-file soldiers are said to have rested under it, gathering strength before going on to beat the redcoats. It is a huge oak tree, now estimated to be 600 years old. Arborists such as Rob Gillies consider it one of the oldest in North America. It is a local landmark, right there in the cemetery of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church. On Thursday, Mr. Gillies sliced into it with a chain saw.”
"I had an open-door policy on dumb ideas."
An brief oral history of the time the New Jersey Nets almost changed their name to the New Jersey Swamp Dragons
Wherever this flag is flown
In November, Brian Donohue of NJ.com asked for submissions to redesign the New Jersey state flag. He received almost 400. (photo gallery is in video form, with music) [more inside]
The Screaming Females Talk
After ten years, six albums, and widespread critical acclaim, Screaming Females are still as hard working and viciously independent as when they began in New Brunswick’s basements in 2006. Such staying power is no small feat in a music industry where independent artists make less and less each year as the stars on the top absorb more and more of the entertainment dollar. Yet here’s a band that has found a way to make a small living, consistently create meaningful music, and all the while never sacrifice their ethical grounding. It hasn’t been easy. As with most jobs, achieving sustainability has meant constant struggles for health care, decent wages, and respect. We talked with the band about how they’ve taken on these obstacles, and what needs to happen to improve conditions for artist-workers across the industry.
"I don't know what that is." "You know... Gabagool."
How Capicola Became Gabagool: The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained.
The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods
The Color of Debt: How Collection Suits Squeeze Black Neighborhoods — a ProPublica investigation into racial disparities in debt collection lawsuits [more inside]
File under: creepy
In the weeks after the Broaddus family purchased their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey they began to receive mysterious, threatening correspondences from a stranger calling themself "The Watcher". The stranger claims a special connection to the house, which has "been the subject of [their] family for decades." The letters went on to claim of a secret buried within the walls of the house, and that a "second coming" was imminent given an infusion of "young blood". The letters also claim that the sender was familiar with the previous owners of the home, and after some digging, the Broaddus family believes that to be true. They are now suing the former inhabitants for withholding this information during the sale of the house. [more inside]
"ads for liver powder, hypophosphites syrup, and “fluid beef,”"
The Sockman and Me: Encounters with a Friendly Neighborhood Fetishist
Recently, my sister forwarded me a picture taken of me in the summer of 1986. I'm standing in front of my parents' pool, holding out a fish I had caught earlier that day. I have one hand on my hip and I'm leaning to the side so as to keep the fish up. What most struck me about the picture were my socks. They cover my entire calf, ending just below my knee. Later that evening, I would sell those same socks for $10 to a guy who lived around the corner. (SLGawker)
Winter Birdwatching in Jersey City
Kosciuszko, Van Wyck, and Spuyten Duyvil
Detroit with a Boardwalk
"Wonder why Atlantic City is failing? The better question, the one asked by people who know the town: Why did anyone think it would ever succeed?"
A classic New Jersey staple: Pork Roll.
What is pork roll most people not from New Jersey/Philly might ask? Pork roll (also known as taylor ham, though this a matter of some contention) is a form of processed meat that is a breakfast favorite of the New Jersey and Philly region. [more inside]
The possibly sad truth about the "magical" bipedal bear of New Jersey
You may have seen stories about a magical bear in New Jersey who walks on its hind legs like a person (if not, here's a video and a second.) Sadly, this might be because it's front paw is injured, possibly "suffering a partial amputation." For another example of a bear making do with less, here is a three-legged bear walking on its hind legs at times.
Fallout: New Jersey
"When Dystopia Rising went well, there were moments that felt natural, perfect. My first night was filled with gang warfare and hunts for a cult of radiation-worshipping Social Darwinists, but one of the parts I remember best was sitting next to a busker who played me a song from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, gave a mythologized retelling of the musical, and ended up explaining the origins of a group I believe was called the Church of Daft Punk" -- The Verge on playing in the massively complex post-apocalyptic LARP ( Live Action Role Playing) game, Dystopia Rising.
Traction Park, redux
The World's Most Dangerous Amusement Park Opens Its Gates Again: (Class) Action Park, perennial MetaFilter favorite, is back in business! [more inside]
#peakedinhighschool
In March, Lawrenceville School Student Body President Maya Peterson, the first Black woman to be elected to that position, posted a photo to her Instagram account where she depicted what she described to be a “Lawrenceville boi”: white, Republican, and cockily holding a hockey stick. She used the hashtags “#romney2016,” “#confederate,” and “#peakedinhighschool." In response to the backlash from the photo, Maya, who is headed to Wesleyan in the fall, chose to step down. [more inside]
"I didn’t want my shop burned down."
A Maryland gun store owner recently spent the night in his store to guard against retribution for his store's (now-reversed) decision to sell the Armatix iP1 Smart Pistol, the first smart gun to be marketed in the United States. Andy Raymond, co-owner of Engage Armament in Rockville, Maryland, initially supported the iP1 as a way to reach "fence-sitters", but backed down after receiving death threats. [more inside]
There's Nothing in the World Like Action Park!
Action Park was an amusement park located in Vernon, New Jersey, (in)famous for its dangerous rides. "You'd see a kid in the summer cover in friction burns, and you'd be like 'How was Action Park?' " (13 minute documentary on DailyMotion.) Relive some of those memories with 9 minutes of commercials from 1979-80, including an actual record of people on Cannonball Loop, and almost six minutes of rides and attractions from 1991.
One of Christie’s flaws “is that he makes enemies and keeps them.”
When Christie was fourteen years old, he heard [now former NJ Governor Thomas] Kean, who was then a member of the state legislature, speak at his junior high school. He told his mother that he wanted to become a politician; she drove him to Kean’s house and told him to knock on the legislator’s door. “Sir, I heard you speak,” he told Kean. “I think I want to get into politics. How do I do it?” Writing for The New Yorker, Ryan Lizza provides an account of Chris Christie's political history from start to Bridgegate.